Torchlight II - "Size Matters"

July 22nd, 2012, 19:55

This week's Torchlight II update looks at the bigger scale of the game compared to the original Torchlight - including an infographic, which highlights the differences (1200 "room layouts" compared to 330, for example):

In terms of scale, Torchlight II is close to 4x the scale of Torchlight 1 as far as assets go, and probably close to that as far as playtime. Ideally, the multiplayer that everyone has asked for will further increase the longevity of the game (we certainly hope so!) These are all new assets as well ( some monsters and weapons return from Torchlight, but they have all been recreated, or in the case of some individual weapons and shields, updated and repainted )
At any rate, wow. That's a lot of stuff. It makes me tired just looking at it, seeing how far we've come - and makes the last push seem that much less daunting.

Originally Posted by kalniel
Urgh that would be horrible, why would you want 4x less work on the game?

Because they have been delaying and "polishing" this game since forever and it's either going to be freaking epic or freaking disappointing. And they can't use the "We wait for D3" line anymore since that game is out and it;s a big pile of poo.

So there is no real competition (Path of Exile will go open beta soon but that's another story), the game had an open beta and is probably 99.99% done by now and they have been delaying it since last year if I remember. Why keep releasing info about it not just release the thing already??!!!

Originally Posted by GothicGothicness
I think their plans of release are rather perfect, just about the time people will be getting really tired of D3, they'll say look here is T2…..

Problem with that is people are already bored of Diablo 3. And have been for some time now.

The other problem Runic has is, that at the moment, their release will be sandwitched between Guild Wars 2 and Mists of Pandaria. I don't see that doing them any good, since Torchlight 2 would still be battling for mostly the same crowd, more or less, even though it is no MMO.

I say they should push the release date for after the WoW expansion is out, which is expected out in September. This way they'll grab the people who are sick of both GW2 and the latest WoW.

Never played these games before, but I've watched a few videos and honestly it's hard for me to tell them apart. I suppose the Torchlight environments look a little more brightly colored, and Dungeon Siege seems to have larger character models.

I would like to better understand what it is that makes these games so popular. The footage I've seen looks incredibly boring, for all of these games. Is it some form of game mechanic reward loop that people are hooked on? That poor Taiwanese guy, how could he play this type of game for 40 hours?

If you don't enjoy character and loot progression in their purest form - then you won't enjoy these games.

That's fair enough - but don't struggle trying to figure it out, because it's probably just a subjective taste thing.

They're challenging in their own way - in how you need to optimise character builds and loot setup to overcome the harder enemies. You need to plan strategically for your character. Unless they go the Diablo 3 way of giving everything to everyone - which doesn't seem likely.

Basically, the story is superficial - and it's all about enjoying an ever expanding arsenal during an everlasting physical conflict with monsters.

That said, Dungeon Siege 2 and 3 set themselves slightly apart. DS2 was quite story oriented (many don't know this) - and was more like a hybrid of Baldur's Gate and Diablo. Dungeon Siege 3 is much more like the console games called Baldur's Gate - where there's zero replayability and you basically play it for the linear storytelling more than the pure loot/character progression.

Not to say that Dungoen Siege 3 is completely on rails. You can choose in what manner you wish to pursue the sidequests. They can be ignored, but you might be nerfed at the end of the game, so mostly the choice is in order of completion. I'm enjoying DS3, now that I was able to get it for $20 instead of $60. I can see myself finishing this a few times maybe, but the story appears to be almost exactly the same, no matter which of the four protagonists you pick.

If you were to try one, Count, DS3 might be your best bet. It has a better told story than the others, although I've never played any of the Diablos. I own Torchlight, but the graphics of that throw me off a bit. I'm going to retry it after DS3.

Originally Posted by CountChocula
I would like to better understand what it is that makes these games so popular. The footage I've seen looks incredibly boring, for all of these games. Is it some form of game mechanic reward loop that people are hooked on? That poor Taiwanese guy, how could he play this type of game for 40 hours?

It's the same kind of thing that had people playing arcade games before personal computers became obtainable. You're in control of something and you have to act and think to overcome the challenge and survive to carry on playing. As you get further you come across new and harder challenges that require you have have improved your characters ability to face them (level, skills, runes, items etc.) along with new player techniques and skill. The successful overcoming of a challenge that you realistically thought you couldn't before increases dopamine levels and you feel more elated, just the same way crossing that gorge or climbing that ridge etc. makes you feel.

Games that fail to make you think you've actually overcome the challenge are not as fun, while well polished games of the likes Blizzard are known for, nail it.

These kinds of action-RPGs are very repetitive though. You have to REALLY like clicking furiously and killing things and picking up what drops from the loot pinatas. Rather mindless, but a good stress relief.